Guatemala ex-police chief found guilty of Spanish embassy attack

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A Guatemalan court on Monday found Pedro Garcia Arredondo, a former police chief, guilty of ordering the 1980 attack on the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City in which 37 people died, sentencing him to 40 years in prison.

Garcia Arredondo, who was a police head during one of the most intense periods of the Central American country's civil war, was also sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of two students.

A group of rural activists took over the Spanish embassy in January 1980 in protest against government repression, 37 people died after the police raid resulted in a fire.